Diane Sherlock

  • Adaptation – UPDATED

    Last year, I worked on the screenplay for the short film version of The Green Bench. Unlike novels, screenplays are intended to be a group effort. Lots of people bring their abilities and you won’t be happy if you are not flexible. The major plot points and themes, yes, fight for those. However, if you’re…

  • Dead Weight

    Why do we write certain stories? There are probably as many answers as there are writers. Growing up, I wanted to write a novel – I finally realized it was a question of when. I had to start or it was never going to happen. At the time, I was enamored of scuba diving and…

  • Resolutions, goals, inspirations

    Do you make New Years’ resolutions? Set goals? This year, I am trying something different and using Danielle LaPorte’s The Desire Map. How would you like to feel when you acheive your goals, finish the book, the script, the performance? To avoid the emptiness of spending years only to find there is no there there, try…

  • a Norwegian Blue pining for the fjords…

    What does writing improv look like? Like the Live Write at David Rocklin’s Roar Shack in Los Angeles.  Here is how he describes the Live Write: Live Write! A thrilling feat of writerly improvisation! As you arrive, you get to vote on a prompt. The winning prompt will be revealed to four intrepid authors –…

  • Why do you create? Why do we?

    Why do you want to create? Why do you write, act, compose, play? If you don’t know, spend some time and get clear on the why. That “why” is the engine that drives you. It keeps you going after rejection – and rejection always comes. It helps if there is some aspect of service in…

  • Owning your shadow

    Perhaps since it’s October and Halloween is just around the corner, the dark, the spooky, the unseen are more on my mind. Robert A. Johnson, a Jungian psychologist, wrote a slim book, Owning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche that is very helpful for artists. He’s also the author of She, He, and…

  • Character and Movement, part two

    The few things I’ve learned so far from the Alexander Technique at Body Chance are that your head is always in motion, your head and neck are attached behind your nose (focus on that while writing or walking and see what happens), your arm is a larger-than-imagined hinge and the glide hinges are at the…

  • Movement & Character, part one

    Sunday evening, I had the great pleasure of taking a workshop at Body Chance from Benedikt Negro, lead performer in Cirque du Soleil’s O for the past 11 years. Let that sink in a moment. 11 years, 10 shows a week and no injuries, thanks in part to the Alexander Technique. That’s something like 5,000 performances. He…

  • 5 ways to help authors; 5 things for authors to avoid

    Several times this past year, I had people ask how they could help me with my books. The first question I asked was whether they’d bought any of them.     No.      Well, there’s a start! You want to help an author, buy their books. Forget all the fancy posts on book marketing…

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